S-R compatibility: spatial characteristics of stimulus and response codes.

The present paper reports the results of two experiments designed to demonstrate the utility of the concept of stimulus-response compatibility in the development of a theory of perceptual-motor behavior. A task involves compatible S-R relations to the extent that the ensemble of stimulus and response combinations comprising the task results in a high rate of information transfer. Admittedly, degree of compatibility can be defined in terms of operations other than those used to secure a measure of information, for example, it could be specified in terms of measures of speed or accuracy. However, the present writers prefer the preceding definition because of the theoretican interpretation that they wish to give to compatibility effects. This interpretation makes use of the idea of a hypothetical process of information transformation or recoding in the course of a perceptual-motor activity, and assumes that the degree of compatibility is at a maximum when recoding processes are at a minimum. The concept of compatibility can be